So, you know, back in the day, it was pretty
cool to have a fancy little phone and you can
install little apps on it. Oh my gosh. And you
had you had, you know, maybe like four or five
apps, right? It was so cool. You could download,
you know, a little game to play. You could download
YouTube. You watch videos on your on your little
phone. How nice was that? I don't know about
you, but I have way too many apps on my phone
now and they just keep multiplying. And, uh,
very, in a very similar way. So has the move
from cable to streaming services back in the
day. Um, you know, when the, when Netflix went
online, it was really, really cool to have Netflix.
Oh, like cancel cable. All you have is Netflix.
All you need is Netflix. And then came, I don't
even know who came next, but then you had Hulu.
So it was like, Oh, Netflix and Hulu. That's
cool. Then you have Apple TV. Now you have like
Disney Plus. Now you have Prime Video. You have
Max Paramount plus Peacock. Dear God. Um, so
like I was thinking the other day about this
actually, and I was like, aside from commercials,
right? Yeah. Why the fuck? Why don't we go back
to cable TV because in the beginning again in
the beginning it was actually cheaper. It was
cheaper to get rid of your $150 cable, you know
bill every single month and then drop down to
Netflix for like what like 15 20 bucks a month.
You know, I don't think it was that much back
then Yeah, it was like pretty cheap now It's
like $58 per month if you get everything but
then if you get like Everything without ads and
stuff. What is it like a hunt? It's over $100.
I think 178 98 180 dollars 180 dollars a month
and I bet cables on sale now because no one has
cable who the hell has cable anymore so cables
probably like $20 a month now like what the hell
so I don't know this is a And I I will say this
Online streaming services has ruined it It has
ruined all of you. It's ruined. Me is ruined.
Octokitty ruined Alex because you no longer have
the joy of just being forced to watch some random
movie like Lawnmower Man that you would never
actually watch. If you had access to 50 ,000
movies on streaming services, you would not watch
Lawnmower Man. But if you're flipping around
the cable channels and it's on, you watch it.
So you might I actually had that experience with
my daughter a few months ago, right? Because
I still have, so I can watch football and stuff
and certain other things, I have an HD antenna
in my living room, right? That's attached to
my TV because by law they have to put the broadcast
channels over air for free. It's a federal law.
They're required to do it mostly for the emergency
broadcast system, right? That's the deal. So
you can go to Best Buy and buy like a $50 HD
antenna and it'll get you like 30 channels. Right
and my daughter was sitting there. She was like,
what did you guys do before the streaming and
I was like here? I'll show you I flipped it over
to that input and I started moving channels Just
channel up channel up channel up and she was
like, well, how would you find what you wanted
to watch? You would just keep hitting channels
until you found something that was inoffensive
enough to watch Right when you were home sick,
it was the price is right Or whatever was on
daytime television. Um Yeah. So again, you're
right. I think that there is kind of a balkanization
there where we watched things that you probably
discovered more interesting things back then
because it was easier to discover. I know when
I flipped through my Netflix, I'm like, I don't
know if I want to watch this. Right. Like, yeah,
you have to think about it pretty hard. And there's
just so much content. And yeah, so. I know some
of the streaming services are starting a bundle
program. I know I got in it like in the early
days So I have Disney Plus Hulu and ESPN Plus
for $16 because I was like an inaugural member
like I'd signed up in the first like day Right.
Well So I get that And cable subscribers are
way down From 2019, 85 .6 million households
had traditional pay television cable in 2023.
That went down to 58 million. That's a huge drop
inside of four years. Yeah. And it's just going
down and down and down. I'm kind of with you.
I wonder when we all go back to cable just because
it's cheaper. Yeah. And I feel like these like.
hipster kids these yeah the generation like underneath
us is going to be like oh look how cool and retro
cable is I'm like watching ads like I didn't
I didn't even know ads existed I will say this
I I miss like old school 90 ads where like they
made no sense at all but they were just fun most
most of the time funny and also just a little
weird like some of them are just burned into
my memory like the one with the egg and it was
like this is your brain on drugs oh yeah dang
yeah there's a there's a great guy on tiktok
called matt mccarthy he's a standard comedian
he collects vhs tapes right and he plays them
on his tiktok like sections of them and one of
his favorite things is like all these memory
burned commercials that we had Like the Hershey's
Christmas one with the Hershey's kisses where
they're all the little bells. Oh, yeah. Yeah,
right. I'm looking at Xfinity right now. It's
actually cheaper than streaming now. Right. If
you want all of the ad free versions of all your
streaming services, 180 bucks a month, it looks
like like Xfinity is starting to base out at
somewhere around 60. Right. I don't think it's
going to help them, but It is getting cheaper
to go back that way. Yeah, I just. I wonder when
does it when does it become ridiculous? Right.
Like you and I talked when we first started the
podcast because you had just canceled your Disney
Plus and I was like, oh, you got to restart that
because we got to do reviews of this show. I
tried it. I tried to do the thing where I would
like cycle. You know like oh, yeah churn that
dude netflix next month. I'll do disney plus
within streaming. They call it churn That's what
the in industry term is is how fast users churn
I sign up to watch this show and when that show's
over I cancel Which is why disney's actually
gone the way of you'll notice They released daredevil,
right? Yeah when daredevil is over what starts?
And or and then and or and they just keep cycling
shows so they always have a new one popping Yeah,
right My issue with Netflix is you never know
what's Netflix is like almost like the Hallmark
Channel in that there's 800 pounds of crap that
Netflix produces and then like one really good
show and you have to sort through them all. And
also Netflix does not know how to advertise their
shows. Anything good I see on Netflix, it comes
from recommendations from people. People being
like, oh, did you see this on Netflix? It's not
from Netflix telling me about the show. It's
from other people telling me about it. You know,
because Netflix sucks at marketing. Yeah, they
do. Oh, my God. Yeah, they're terrible about
it. Disney will at least like market their crap.
They will. Yeah, sometimes they will shove that
down your throat like they will come to your
house, knock on the door and be like, you're
going to watch this now. Yeah. But yeah, Netflix.
I don't know, they need to figure out marketing.
Do you really do? Do you have a what is your
favorite streaming service? Which which one is
the best in your opinion? Corn hub. No, I'm just
kidding. Oh no. Um, I don't. So there, Ooh, there
are things that like will irk the shit out of
me with some of the streaming services. So for
instance, if I have to like scroll pretty far
down to like hit the continue watching. Oh, I
hate it. I hate it so much. One thing I really
hate about Netflix is the lack of trailers. They
will like push something out. I'm like, what
is this about? And it will say like, I don't
know, like five words like Jeff and Alex form
a podcast. And it's like, oh, OK, well, is this
what is this? And like no trailer. And I'll just
cut to like the most random 10 second clip. And
you're like, what the fuck is this about? I'm
not going to watch this. I hate that. I think
Amazon Prime. Has a pretty good setup, but that's
mainly because you can link so much with it Like
I go to Amazon Prime and I have like paramount
Other stuff I can't even think yeah with it.
So I like that like the central hub thing Disney's
like really good though. Disney's is like clean
Peacock sucks. So somebody in the YouTube chat
just brought this up now I will say it's not
my favorite but the one that is better than everybody
thinks it is is Apple TV plus Right and see Apple
TV plus is like linked with my Amazon Prime.
Yeah, and it's got some Phenomenal shows Apple
TV very quietly has been producing some top -tier
content Shrinking which I can't say enough about
I love that show Love that show, right? It's
it's Jason Siegel and Harrison Ford. Just crush
it in that show on Solo. That's a grumpy old
therapist and I Love it. Yeah, um It's a great
show Ted Lasso's on there the morning shows on
there right for all mankind's on there They're
just a very quietly or like we don't release
a lot But what we release is top tier and that's
all we spend money on I still think for its catalog
the size and depth of its catalog Disney Plus
is the best one Yeah, because they just have
the biggest vault Right and especially now that
they own all the Fox properties the old 20th
century Fox properties. They're like, oh we have
the Simpsons now Right. Would you like to watch
season 2 Simpsons? We've got that here you go
You know Honestly the one that I've been closest
to canceling is Netflix Yeah Yeah, the only reason
we have peacock is my wife got it at like a New
Year's sale She got like the whole year on sale
for like $12 .99 For 12 months. It's the only
reason I have peacock. I We have like peacock
because like I I just have verizon and I feel
like Every time when I get a new phone I get
like 36 free years of That's the one That's the
thing a bunch of the phone companies started
doing a few years ago Where it's like if you're
with this like when I was on t -mobile, I think
we got netflix for free Yeah, right and now i'm
on at &t and I get something else. Um Yeah, somebody
say Disney pick up Paramount Plus actually has
some pretty quality content and their movie library
is really good because Paramount's made some
really good movies over the years Yeah, right
We got really far afield on this topic It's good.
Yeah, somebody the chats kind of with me like
I thought about dumping Netflix and then they'll
put out one good thing YouTube chat. What if
Nickelodeon got into it unlocking God to your
millennial myth and legend? I piece Nickelodeon
is already there. They're on Paramount Plus Paramount
owns the Nickelodeon all of the Nickelodeon content
is On Paramount Plus. So if you're looking for
the Nickelodeon content, that's where it lives
Because they own that the Paramount so Nickelodeon
forever. Where is there it does someone own like
G4 and I like look up old G4 I don't know. That's
a good question. Probably not. It's probably
a loss to the Internet ether. It's probably written
versions on YouTube. Yeah. So, yeah, again, Netflix
is the one I'm closest to doing. Hulu again,
I get it bundled. Same thing with ESPN. Which
is nice. Good old Reddit. Anyway. Uh, what do
you guys think? What is your favorite streaming
subscription? Should we all just go back to cable
because streaming has just gotten too bloody
expensive Let us know what you think down in
the comments below